Onanì, Church of San Pietro

Located in the heart of Sardinia, the town of Onanì is known for the murals created by the painter Diego Asproni and a group of students from the Brera Academy. Nearby there are archaeological sites that date back to the Nuragic era. The ancient parish church of San Pietro Apostolo is located on the immediate outskirts of the town, in a rural area that overlooks the road between Onanì and Bitti.
The church of San Pietro Apostolo di Onanì represents a beautiful example of minor Romanesque architecture, which draws its charm from the organic insertion into the natural landscape and from the quality of the stone.
There are no known documentary attestations of the church, entirely made of granite worked in small ashlars. The factory dates back to the 12th century and has elements of strong affinity with small churches on the island of Elba and Corsica, also built in granite.
The floor plan is single-aisled with an S/E apse. The outer cover is made of shale slabs. The apse has a single window in the center and is dominated by a cruciform opening, similar to the one on the façade. The latter has a portal with a raised drain arch and a shale lintel; at the top of the slopes, a large sailing bell tower rises.

History of studies
The history of studies on Onanì and the church of San Pietro is reduced to a few publications: the entry “Onanì” by Vittorio Angius in the Casalis “Dictionary” (1845), the study on the diocese of Galtellì edited by Pietro Maria Marcello (1983) and the fact sheet in Roberto Coroneo's volume on Romanesque architecture in Sardinia (1993), which places the emphasis on the peculiarity of the building material, granite, little used in Sardinian Romanesque architecture. It was published in 1995 by the Municipality of Onanì.

Bibliography
V. Angius, “Onanì”, in G. Casalis, Historical-Statistical-Commercial Geographical Dictionary of the States by H.M. the King of Sardinia, XIII, Turin, G. Maspero, 1845, pp. 109-112;
P.M. Marcello, The Diocese of Galtellì, Sassari, Art Printing, 1983, p. 53;
R. Coroneo, Romanesque Architecture from the Mid-Thousand to Early '300, Nuoro, Ilisso, 1993, sheet 63; Onanì: art and culture of a community, Onanì, Municipality of Onanì, Municipality of Onanì Yes, 1995;
R. Coroneo, Romanesque Churches of Sardinia. Tourist-cultural itineraries, Cagliari, AV, 2005, p. 63.

How to get there
Along the SP 3 from Bitti to Lula, at km 7.5 there is the town of Onanì, on the outskirts of which is the church of San Pietro.